Overview of Diversity Management implementation and impact amongst Diversity Charter signatories in the European Union (2014)

From 2004 to date, 13 national Diversity Charters have been established across Europe aiming at encouraging companies to implement and develop diversity policies. The charter is a short document voluntarily signed by companies which outlines the commitment of the undersigning organization to promote diversity and equal opportunities in the workplace, regardless of, for example, age, disability, gender, race or ethnic origin, religion or sexual orientation.
In 2010, the Diversity Charters from across the European Union came together to work as the EU-level ex-change Diversity Charter Platform. This development was funded by the European Commission under the project ‘Support for voluntary initiatives promoting diversity management at the workplace across the EU’. The EU-level exchange platform allows the promoters of the existing diversity charters to meet on a regular basis, to share their experiences and develop common tools. Among the greatest achievements is the key fact that over 7,100 companies, including enterprises, public bodies, NGOs and covering over 13.6 million employees, have signed the 13 charters.
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This report is a summary of eleven national surveys, which were conducted between May and September 2014 across the EU. In all, 1826 organizations replied to the survey. This expresses high a response rate of 26%. In principle, the survey consisted of 11 main-questions and 2 sub-questions. Some of the charters had slightly modified the questions. Whenever relevant for the results, it is explicitly pointed out in the report or in a footnote. The report focuses on the total EU-results and is not meant to provide comparisons between individual countries, as each one has different starting points and national contexts which would make this comparison possible only after an extensive process of questioning and evaluation which falls outside the scope of this survey.